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CNN Live Event/Special
Police Chief Addresses Search for Maryland Killer
Aired October 03, 2002 - 15:07 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: I'm now told we are going to Montgomery County, Maryland. Or is this Rockville? We're going to Montgomery County, Maryland.
Chief Charles Moose addressing the search for suspects, where five people have died in the past 15 hours in Montgomery County.
Let's listen in.
(JOINED IN PROGRESS)
CHIEF CHARLES MOOSE, MONTGOMERY COUNTY POLICE DEPARTMENT: ... at Northgate shopping center, one round into that store, no injuries.
A little later that evening, 6:04: a shooting at 2200 Randolph shopping center on Randolph's Road Shoppers Food Warehouse. One victim, approximately 55 years, white male, killed at that time. We had no suspect, no motive. As the investigators worked into the night and certainly back at it again this morning, the situation continued to unfold.
7:41 a.m.: another shooting. A male was shot and killed near White Flint. 8:12 a.m.: A male was killed right over here at the Mobil station, one round, again, no suspect, no motive known to us at this point. 8:37: The event continued to unfold, when a female was shot and killed at 3802 International Drive outside of a post office. And then, as we were working all of those situations of this morning, at 9:58 a.m., at Connecticut and Knowles (ph), a Shell station there, another person was shot and killed, again one round.
We are presently in the middle of making all of the notifications to the immediate family members. And our investigators are making that personal contact to all of those individuals. We have a number of different resources that have been deployed within the county, first and foremost, certainly, a rapid and large response from the Maryland State Police, response from the Rockville City police, the Gaithersburg City police.
The FBI, ATF, U.S. Marshals and the Secret Service are all involved in this investigation and working with us in various methods, strategy, bringing resources to the table, bringing investigators, bringing experience to the situation that is different and very bizarre to all of us. Clearly, we have a number of police officers on the street in uniform in plainclothes, state troopers, other individuals.
And so there are numerous traffic stops, numerous arrests occurring throughout the county. Certainly, a lot of white vans are being interdicted, people having discussions with those individuals. They are turning up some people that have issues. But none of the arrests, none of the contacts at this moment are related to this investigation.
But, clearly, you are hearing about a lot of police activity, because we have a lot of police officers out. And, certainly, white vans are of a major interest to us and all law enforcement, not only in Montgomery County, throughout the state of Maryland, the state of Virginia and certainly probably further north than I actually know at this point.
At this point, I am anticipating the arrival of County Executive Doug Duncan. When I notified him this morning, as this situation started to unfold, he was at a conference, the National Organization of Counties, in Chicago. He immediately went to the airport and has been en route back to the county. I think, at this point, he's on the ground. And I will be meeting with him and briefing him. And then I think, certainly, he will have some comments to his community.
We're also developing, putting together the last technical pieces of the hot line. We anticipate, in the next couple of hours, coming back to you with that number, would ask you as the media to please be very diligent in helping us get that number out. And I would anticipate, at that same time, that we will connect that hot line to a reward. And we will have all of those specifics when we come back to you.
At this point, if you will work with me in some kind of respectful and uniform fashion, I'd like to take some questions, as long as it doesn't deteriorate.
QUESTION: What sort of evidence are you getting from the crime scene?
MOOSE: Well, certainly, this is a very evolving investigation. I am not, at this point, prepared to speak about any evidence from the crime scenes.
(CROSSTALK)
QUESTION: Chief, you said there were several arrests. Arrests for what? And is it related to the investigation, if not the crime?
MOOSE: Well, sir, I should try to speak louder.
I said that we have a lot of police officers out working on patrol. We brought people from home. We have other jurisdictions assisting in the county. They are stopping a lot of people. They are making a lot of arrests for a lot of different things. None of them are related to this situation. So, if you hear about arrests, if we have an arrest in this case, we will share that information.
I don't have the capacity to tell you all of the charges and all of the people that we've arrested today. I just don't have that mental capacity. (CROSSTALK)
QUESTION: Two shootings last night occurred during rush hour. The shootings this morning, for the most part, occurred during rush hour. We're on the edge of yet another rush hour. Do you see any significance to that? And what advice can you give to the people who are out and about in Montgomery County right now?
MOOSE: Well, certainly, to the people that are out and about...
PHILLIPS: You've been listening from Montgomery County, Maryland, Police Chief Charles Moose, basically just reiterating what we've been telling you all throughout the morning.
And that is, police are still searching for the suspect/suspects that opened fire on five people at random, leading to five people now dead over a 15-hour period. This all started yesterday -- now authorities stopping a number of cars, searching them, especially cars that look like this, white box-type delivery vehicles, because, according to witnesses, that is the type of vehicle that the shooter or the shooters were driving when the five people were killed at random throughout the Montgomery County, Maryland, area.
So, right now, police still looking for the suspects involved in these homicides. We'll continue to follow this story. The police chief says a hot line and reward are soon to follow. We'll let about you know about both of those as soon as we know.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired October 3, 2002 - 15:07 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: I'm now told we are going to Montgomery County, Maryland. Or is this Rockville? We're going to Montgomery County, Maryland.
Chief Charles Moose addressing the search for suspects, where five people have died in the past 15 hours in Montgomery County.
Let's listen in.
(JOINED IN PROGRESS)
CHIEF CHARLES MOOSE, MONTGOMERY COUNTY POLICE DEPARTMENT: ... at Northgate shopping center, one round into that store, no injuries.
A little later that evening, 6:04: a shooting at 2200 Randolph shopping center on Randolph's Road Shoppers Food Warehouse. One victim, approximately 55 years, white male, killed at that time. We had no suspect, no motive. As the investigators worked into the night and certainly back at it again this morning, the situation continued to unfold.
7:41 a.m.: another shooting. A male was shot and killed near White Flint. 8:12 a.m.: A male was killed right over here at the Mobil station, one round, again, no suspect, no motive known to us at this point. 8:37: The event continued to unfold, when a female was shot and killed at 3802 International Drive outside of a post office. And then, as we were working all of those situations of this morning, at 9:58 a.m., at Connecticut and Knowles (ph), a Shell station there, another person was shot and killed, again one round.
We are presently in the middle of making all of the notifications to the immediate family members. And our investigators are making that personal contact to all of those individuals. We have a number of different resources that have been deployed within the county, first and foremost, certainly, a rapid and large response from the Maryland State Police, response from the Rockville City police, the Gaithersburg City police.
The FBI, ATF, U.S. Marshals and the Secret Service are all involved in this investigation and working with us in various methods, strategy, bringing resources to the table, bringing investigators, bringing experience to the situation that is different and very bizarre to all of us. Clearly, we have a number of police officers on the street in uniform in plainclothes, state troopers, other individuals.
And so there are numerous traffic stops, numerous arrests occurring throughout the county. Certainly, a lot of white vans are being interdicted, people having discussions with those individuals. They are turning up some people that have issues. But none of the arrests, none of the contacts at this moment are related to this investigation.
But, clearly, you are hearing about a lot of police activity, because we have a lot of police officers out. And, certainly, white vans are of a major interest to us and all law enforcement, not only in Montgomery County, throughout the state of Maryland, the state of Virginia and certainly probably further north than I actually know at this point.
At this point, I am anticipating the arrival of County Executive Doug Duncan. When I notified him this morning, as this situation started to unfold, he was at a conference, the National Organization of Counties, in Chicago. He immediately went to the airport and has been en route back to the county. I think, at this point, he's on the ground. And I will be meeting with him and briefing him. And then I think, certainly, he will have some comments to his community.
We're also developing, putting together the last technical pieces of the hot line. We anticipate, in the next couple of hours, coming back to you with that number, would ask you as the media to please be very diligent in helping us get that number out. And I would anticipate, at that same time, that we will connect that hot line to a reward. And we will have all of those specifics when we come back to you.
At this point, if you will work with me in some kind of respectful and uniform fashion, I'd like to take some questions, as long as it doesn't deteriorate.
QUESTION: What sort of evidence are you getting from the crime scene?
MOOSE: Well, certainly, this is a very evolving investigation. I am not, at this point, prepared to speak about any evidence from the crime scenes.
(CROSSTALK)
QUESTION: Chief, you said there were several arrests. Arrests for what? And is it related to the investigation, if not the crime?
MOOSE: Well, sir, I should try to speak louder.
I said that we have a lot of police officers out working on patrol. We brought people from home. We have other jurisdictions assisting in the county. They are stopping a lot of people. They are making a lot of arrests for a lot of different things. None of them are related to this situation. So, if you hear about arrests, if we have an arrest in this case, we will share that information.
I don't have the capacity to tell you all of the charges and all of the people that we've arrested today. I just don't have that mental capacity. (CROSSTALK)
QUESTION: Two shootings last night occurred during rush hour. The shootings this morning, for the most part, occurred during rush hour. We're on the edge of yet another rush hour. Do you see any significance to that? And what advice can you give to the people who are out and about in Montgomery County right now?
MOOSE: Well, certainly, to the people that are out and about...
PHILLIPS: You've been listening from Montgomery County, Maryland, Police Chief Charles Moose, basically just reiterating what we've been telling you all throughout the morning.
And that is, police are still searching for the suspect/suspects that opened fire on five people at random, leading to five people now dead over a 15-hour period. This all started yesterday -- now authorities stopping a number of cars, searching them, especially cars that look like this, white box-type delivery vehicles, because, according to witnesses, that is the type of vehicle that the shooter or the shooters were driving when the five people were killed at random throughout the Montgomery County, Maryland, area.
So, right now, police still looking for the suspects involved in these homicides. We'll continue to follow this story. The police chief says a hot line and reward are soon to follow. We'll let about you know about both of those as soon as we know.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
